Welcome back to the Virtual Advent Tour! You’re back with me for the next couple of days.

Today is Friday the 13th, and I briefly thought about looking up things that people consider superstitious about Christmas to tie in with the date. After all, superstitions are a form of odd tradition, and this holiday in particular is steeped in customs. But then I decided that I’m not especially superstitious about Christmas (although I might consider it bad luck indeed if my holiday season didn’t include certain things), so I forewent the topic. But I did think it was interesting to consider for a few minutes. Do you have Christmas-related superstitions?

Instead, I’m taking you on another photo tour, this time of the Macy’s windows. I love taking pictures of the ones here in D.C. every year, but since the week before Thanksgiving found me in the Big Apple just after the big unveiling, I decided to head to the flagship store — the inspiration for Miracle on 34th Street — and give you a tour of their windows.

These are not the best shots I’ve ever taken, so apologies for that. But I do think they give you a flavor of this year’s display.

This year’s theme centers around a little girl who wants to be Santa Claus.

The windows in New York offered a lot of opportunity for interaction, which I assume would be hard to pull off at their other locations. But the features were very popular with tourists, who could make Willow the dog scratch its nose or collect gifts in a video game-like environment.

My photos don’t accurately depict the motion of the windows, but I hope they give you a sense of their whimsy.

I’d hoped to push this post off until I had a chance to get over to the Holidays on Display exhibit at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, but as we’re halfway through the month, I’m a little worried I won’t get to the museum until it’s too late to share with you here.

See you back here tomorrow!

Three beautiful things from my past week:

1. Rudi, Sarah, and I went out for pizza at our favorite D.C. pizza joint last Saturday. The owner of the shop has publicly shared he’s considering moving to Colorado, and none of the shop’s social media pages have been updated in more than six months, so if they suddenly decide to close up shop in the middle of the night, at least we all enjoyed one last pie from them.

2. Rudi helped me finish decorating the Christmas tree the night before he left for Salt Lake City. This tree, which I bought for $20 in Connecticut, had a lot of bare patches in the middle, which might have been a turn-off for some people. It was very obvious when there was nothing on the tree but lights and would have remained so if I’d had a paucity of decorations. But empty space lends itself to dangly ornaments, and the tree has a lot of strong branches to hang heavier ones from, so now you’d be hard-pressed to notice the gaps.

3. Various people on my volleyball team have played together since last spring (four of us from one team, and three from another), but this is the first time the entire team has said they’d like to play together again in the next season. I keep getting emails from them as they sign up for the winter league. I’ve liked various teams I’ve played with before, but this group of folks is the first one that I’ve considered friends.

How about you? What’s been beautiful in your world lately?